WEST LAFAYETTE — Folding himself into a golf cart on September 24, 2016, Matt Haarms wheeled around Purdue’s campus on a conspicuous official visit.

A buzz grew among fans who caught a glimpse of the then-Sunrise Christian Academy center as they milled around Ross-Ade Stadium prior to kickoff. There’s really no way for a 7-3 athlete to anonymously experience an “ordinary” campus experience.

Yet that weekend helped entice Haarms to become Purdue’s first Class of 2017 commitment a few weeks later.

“It was very important,” said Haarms, who later reclassified and enrolled at midseason in 2016-17. “Talking to all the coaches at the same time in one room, meeting everybody face-to-face, seeing the guys I was going to be playing with — that was a big part of it.”

Soon, Purdue will bring Class of 2019 recruits to West Lafayette for a new round of visits. Cathedral guard Armaan Franklin scheduled a visit for the first weekend in September. Not coincidentally, that’s the weekend of Purdue football’s season opener against Northwestern, played on Aug. 30.

As New Castle's Mason Gillis and Zionsville's Isaiah Thompson proved with their early commitments, official visits aren't mandatory in order to lock in a recruit. However, the visits can help uncommitted players gauge their comfort level with the personalities around the program.

The Boilermakers hosting the visits — who were so recently the ones taking those visits — describe their role more as docents than salesmen.

"The coaches, they wanted me to shoot it straight," said recently graduated point guard P.J. Thompson, who said hosting official visits helped convince him to eventually go into coaching. "They don't want me to tell them something we don't do or is not going on at Purdue. They tell the guys to be themselves and we do what we normally do when we're not there.

"We do stuff the right way, but we still have a good time. I think a lot of recruits respect that because we can be ourselves the whole time and we didn't lie to them "

Thompson hosted a handful of official visits over the years. Director of men's basketball operations Elliot Bloom said those assignments are made in consultation with coach Matt Painter, the assistant acting as lead recruiter and himself.

Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes the hosting honor goes to a player from the recruiting target's hometown. Sometimes it goes to an upperclassman at that player's position.

Sometimes personality is a factor. P.J. Thompson believes sophomore Nojel Eastern, in particular, could shine in that role in the future.

Programs pick up the tab for the entire official visit for the player and two parents — transportation, lodging, three meals per day and three tickets to athletic events. (Only the tickets are provided on unofficial visits.)

In a perfect world, the campus vibe sells itself without much work on the players' behalf. Haarms said one factor in particular has changed since he Nevada home football game he attended in 2016.

"The excitement we have right now with and football — and it isn't even here yet — is amazing," Haarms said earlier this month.

"I'm extremely excited to be able to go to football games and show some of the recruits the spirit people have for the team now — that same spirit they might show at our games."

When talk turns to basketball, Haarms said he avoids the "golden goose" sales pitch. No playing time guarantees. No sugar coating the demands and expectations of the program.

Bloom said Purdue's staff has always encouraged recruiting targets to ask other people — whether current or former players or others the Boilermakers have recruited — about the coaches. They consider Painter's reputation for fairness and honesty a selling point.

"Recruits are smart," Bloom said. "They've been around the block. They know what's what. If you're fake, they know. They've seen it enough to know when people are being real or fake."

Cline took his Purdue official visit as a high school senior in 2014 even though he had committed a couple of months earlier. Trevion Williams did the same last year, visiting the same weekend that then-uncommitted Eric Hunter took his official.

A similar dynamic will be at play during Franklin's visit as Isaiah Thompson told the Journal & Courier he plans to visit the same weekend.

Cline had been to practices and open gyms and already met all of his future teammates. Yet he contends the behind-the-scenes experience had value.

"I feel like over that weekend I got to know everybody else a lot better," Cline said.

Currently, men's basketball players can take a total of five official visits from January 1 of their junior year through their senior year.

The Rice Commission — convened by the NCAA to address allegations of impropriety in college basketball recruiting — recently went a step further. Athletes will be able to take five official visits between Aug. 1 and the end of their junior year, another five between the end of their junior year and the Oct. 15 after their high school graduation, and five more after that date and during the remainer of their college eligibility.

Players can only visit a school once each year.

That new landscape will remove some of the urgency of these senior-year visits. Additionally, players inclined to make early decisions can take earlier visits to better inform those choices.

The coming official visit season, however, remains a big one for Purdue. With Gillis and Thompson already in the fold, Painter could look for as many as three more players for this class. Among the highly recruited players his staff will try to bring in in addition to Franklin are Sunrise Christian's Malik Hall, Montverde Academy's Brandon Newman and Texas big man Drew Timme.

Could an enjoyable or enlightening official visit be a deciding factor in those players' decisions? Purdue's players welcome the opportunity.

"Hopefully I can get a couple more up here so we can get a couple more recruits here to Purdue," Cline said.